Finally, my blog has gone live!

[link]

There are most probably a few bugs left (limited to graphics, but still), but those will be solved when I encounter them. So far the content is nothing to be proud of (one introduction post and a few pages without content), but the blog will go on to contain more work than I even post here! So, if you like my ramblings here, I would definitely like it if you would follow the blog. Ow, and the blog will also be the spot where I am going to post my papers and games(and prototypes).

If you happen to have a website, blog, something alike of your own, let me know! My blogroll is currently rather slim and networking is never a bad thing.

My new notebook that is! I have not had the time to turn it on yet (I am going to do that and the whole installing deal tomorrow after work), but I finally got myself my new notebook!

Its quite the machine too! Sure, not the best the market has to offer (I am not ready to offer my soul in payment yet, thank you very much ), but still a nasty piece of work! Quadcore 2(something)Ghz, 1GB of videocard, 6GB of RAM, FullHD 17" screen. It's an Asus and is one of their game brand laptops, so I figure it is natural that the things packs a little punch, but it is strange to know that the thing outperforms my PC in pretty much every way .
Tomorrow I am going to install the hell out of his shiny behind; I even bought crysis warhead (it was cheap) as a benchmark to immediately test just how much the thing could actually take. Not to play it intensely though; I found the first one to be severely disappointing.

It also came with a whole lot of usefull crap I didnt know about (backpack, headphones, mouse)!

Yeah, I am happy .

On a sidenote; my blogdesign is coming along very nicely. Have to admit that I didnt have much time the last few days (got sick and was ridden with post-school appointments), but I would say that the design is somewhere along the line of 60-75% (which means I can finally start on that kiriban very soon!). However, filling a wall with notes and everything is hard, especially since written notes borifies (I hereby coin this term) the whole wall. So, if you have any suggestions (except for a calender, as I was already planning that one), feel free to say it !

I passed! I am now officially an European Media Master of the Arts (EMMA). Well, my tutors have given me the positive advice, so technically, I have not passed just yet. Since our school's Master is provided by the university in Portsmouth, they actually have the final say in the matter. However, according to the tutors, they normally follow the advice of the tutors. So, while I technically didn't pass just yet (I get the final message somewhere next week if everything goes alright), I got the positive advice, which should be pretty much the same thing .

It was quite horrendous though; the days before and during the final examination where hell. Not in terms of preparations (which was pretty bad too), but regarding the NS (Dutch Railways). Damn, these people really had it in for me these few days .

Tuesday evening, I and my team finished up practising our presentations. It was about 7 o'clock when we heard that there were some troubles at the main station of Utrecht (kind of like a central point for the trains and one I have to travel through in order to get home). Some kind of sign malfunctioning, so trains did not leave. So, after hearnig this, we decided to continue working until 10 o'clock. So far, no NS problem had laster for longer than 3-4 hours, and apparantly this malfunctioning started at 5 o'clock. Well, that was until that night, when we found out that even 5 hours after the problem began, it was still there. I got home at 2.15 after midnight, 4 hours and 15 minutes after I left . For reference sake, normally the trip lasts for about 65 minutes. To make matters worse, these 4 hours and 15 minutes were only because my teammate, who travelled with me, called family to pick us up and bring us home. Without that help, I am sure it would have been about 4 o´clock instead.

So, the next day was my presentation. Due to the miscommunication earlier with Kyushu University, I was the first to present (at 10 o´clock). Unfortunately, since I got home so late, I was unable to get my bike from the protected storage, so I had to go to the station by bus. Normally not a problem, the distance is only 10 minutes by bus. That is, if you do not get the slowest bus driver in the entire world as your bus driver. This guy looked like he was in his late twenties, early thirties at most, but he drove like an 80year old. Seriously, bicycles were keeping up with us... So, at around halfway there, I get out of the bus and sprint towards the station, running through half of Eindhoven (it felt that way anyway). And, by some kind of miracle, I actually made it and was on time for the presentation .

Anyway, if NS does something wrong, they do it thoroughly.

As for me passing; I have to admit I am not that happy about it. Not that I passed, but with what I passed. For some reason, I am not happy with what I made; it is lacking. I kind of figured out the why as well; which may actually have been for the best.

I found out that I am seriously lacking in the ability to criticize myself. I have good self reflection skills, but not when it comes to the things I make. That is one thing I need to work on. The second thing is that I am bad at writing. Fortunately, I have a course that can help me improve on that. The last thing is the most important thing I realized;

I was actually heading in the wrong direction. As a designer, I have always been interested in the interactivity of the medium. For the better part of 8 years, I have also been studying this. However, for the last year, I suddenly went into the narrative direction. Well, more precisely, the last 6 months I went more in the narrative direction. While quite a learning experience, it turns out I have zero to no affinity with the narrative side of media. Which I, unconsciously, have known for like forever. All the things I discussed earlier about what I wanted to make; they have had nothing to do with narrative at all; narrative only formed a layer of polish upon the interactive systems I was aiming to create or design. Which was exactly why I cannot be happy with my latest paper; it was too much about narrative and being immersed in it. I should have been researching a way for designers to use it instead.

So, 2 days after passing, I have actually started writing a new paper . This time, I am going to design something regarding nonverbal behavior once again. But, instead of finding out how to convey story using gestures (not my thing), I am going to research how I can guide players through environments using nonverbal communication (my thing). The actual communication here is not important, just the effect the nonverbal support can have on the player. With that, I aim to present a list of tools that can help a designer guide the player using characters; much in the way that same designer can use levelelements such as color to guide players.

And now I have got that out of my system, I am going to revel in my mastership .

I am currently hard at work with a group of other students to finish our graduation project. For that purpose, we need people who are willing to playtest the game we have created so far.

So, if you are willing to playtest the game for us, please download it from the following link:

Arrival By Train

The install instructions can be found in the included README file. After you have played the game (we think that playing it for 10 minutes should be sufficient), please fill in the following questionnaire:

Questionnaire

If new versions become available, I will update this journal. I would really appreciate it if you would reply to this journal if you are going to playtest the game. It is not required, but it would be nice to know who playtests our game .

The game's purpose is to communicate with the lady. This can be done by using the 6 buttons that are placed in a cirkel around the characters. To press these buttons, move your cursor towards it and hold the left mouse. You will see it starting to fill up. As soon as it is filled up you pressed the button and activated the effect associated with that button.

Thank you very much in advance!

The game has been out for while now, and is now also available in the US I believe. I have had the game for a while, but thanks to lack of time (darn deadlines) I havent been able to spare enough time to give the game a chance. That was until recently though, after I decided it might be a good idea to not fry my brains with constant work.

Anyway, lets get this started.

Little King's Story is a action strategy title by Cing (well, the exact details of who developed it is a bit more complicated). When it was being developed, the game was not exactly on my radar. I didnt dislike the cutesey graphics or something, but it was mostly the aspect of "realtime strategy" at that time that put me off (I am not a big fan of these games). Anyway, when the game started getting in good reviews and I was able to secure a 2nd handed copy (the game was literally not available pretty much anywhere, except for the obscure specialty game stores, which in the Netherlands are quite scarce). I am glad I did in the end, because the game is mighty fun.

If you are looking for a mature title or a title heavy on storytelling, Little King's Story wont fulfill your need. While the game has a few underlying tones, these tones do not make up a plot. If you are just looking for having a good time, Little King's Story just might be what you are looking for. For me, the latter is all what counts.

Well then, first of all, the good things

The game is mighty fun with an actual decent learning curve. One thing that has annoyed me about current day games is that they throw everything at you they have to offer in the first 15 minutes. Afterwards they expect you to rinse and repeat for the remaining 10. Little King's Story is a bit different and feels more like an action adventure in that regards. During the game, you get the ability to train different job types, most of which have a special ability that only they can perform. Farmers can open up cracks, soldiers can attack, miners can break large patches of otherwise inaccessible rock, and so on. The game really does its very best to keep things varied in the first few hours.

The game is also fairly large. I am currently 8 hours into the game and have just finished conquering my first kingdom. Later I found out I still have got 7 to go! Apart from conquering opposing kingdoms, you also get to expand you own area by defeating boss characters in areas around your kingdom (so called guardians). At the moment such a guardian is defeated, more area becomes available and more jobs become available. On top of that the game offers side quest, which normally involve "find X enemy at Y place and kill it".

The game is also rather difficult. I dont consider myself to be a bad gamer (not top nothc either though), but still this game is able to dish out some harsh punishment to my army. If enemies attack you in groups, better be prepared to take them on while using your brain. Simply rushing soldiers into the heat of battle will get them killed. Fast. As for bosses, they are normally just trial and error. They have a few patterns and you have to learn them; there is not much else to it.

I am loving the style. While the models themselves may not be overly detailed, they sure spend a lot of time on the detail in the environment. Small flower beds, large patches of trees that are constantly moving in the wind, animals that are scattered here and there; the game offers an impressive amount of detail. While at times the amount of detail is a bit much, I think the game looks very good. Sure, the game doesnt push any hardware boundaries, but I dont think it has to.

As for the bad things
While the graphics are certainly not bad, every now and then I spot some weird decisions. For example, everytime you see a tree with cherry blossoms, expect it to have bloom. Same goes for other things; every now and then, they tend to go overboard with the shaders. Every now and then the screen also blurs, though I am not certain why this is exactly. I do know it has something to do with the commands I have given to my army. Maybe it is because they land in some place they shouldnt land and are repositioned using the blur. I really dont know, but I do know that it can be annoying.

The camera can also be annoying at times. To be more specific, there are areas where the camera is locked; these areas make it difficult to fight the enemy. I have had some occassions where I was almost wiped out because I couldnt see the area correctly. Since these are only few in numbers (at points where I dont understand just why they had to do that), it is not a major annoyance though.

At first when you only have a small army, dealing out orders is not that difficult. However, very soon in the game, they are going to expect you to multitask. The game however only offers very little control in this multitasking. You can sick one of your army at the enemy and you can call them back. That is about it. If you have given orders to all of your army, and want to call one group back, you always have to call everyone back. This unfortunately can make the game frustrating as the game expects you to multitask fairly often in very small areas. It also adds to the difficulty, though not in a good way.

Final verdict
All in all, Little King's Story makes a very good game. If you are one of those people that were starved for Wii games, give this game a try. I am loving every minute of it at the moment. I would also recommend the game just to support it, as it doesnt seem like even the publisher wanted the game to sell (seeing as how it was apparantly only available in specialty stores over the entirety of Europe). I think we need more games like this (not just for the Wii, but in general); a game that is just about having good fun in an imaginative setting.